November 11, 2025 • 45 mins
We sit down with Constable Buck Stevens to explore how Pearland can grow without losing what makes it feel like home, from parks and arts to public safety and small business. Buck shares a lifetime of service and a practical plan to connect people, cut confusion, and strengthen community.
• Pearland’s evolution from ranchland to family hub
• Civil role of constables and partnership with police
• Small business ownership and local economy insight
• Nonprofit basics, board health, and community impact
• Why run for mayor and what success looks like
• Keeping small-town feel through smart zoning
• Communication gaps and a shared community calendar
• Arts, markets, and a mid-sized convention venue
• Roads, traffic, and realistic timelines for relief
• Homelessness, right-of-way enforcement, and services
• Balancing growth, taxes, and neighborhood voice
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:04):
The podcast of veterans helping veterans
talking about things happeningin the veteran community, things
we've experienced and overcome,such as addictions, PTSD,
depression, legal trouble.
And we also promoteveteran-owned businesses.
If you're talking about it,we're talking about it.
(00:24):
This is Charlie Mike thePodcast.
SPEAKER_02 (00:31):
Yo, welcome back to another episode of Charlie Mike
the Podcast.
As always, I'm your host, Raul.
Today I got a special guest inthe house, and it's Buck
Stevens.
Now, let me tell you, BuckStevens, I'm not going to tell
him.
You tell him a little bit aboutyourself.
And um what what brings you heretoday?
SPEAKER_01 (00:49):
Okay, well, um, first of all, thank you.
Thank you for uh providing theopportunity for me to be here
and and be a part of this.
Um always looking for ways toengage the community.
So this is uh something like Isaid, I haven't ever done one
before.
So this is gonna be new for me.
But uh native Paraland, beenhere all my life, uh uh born and
raised.
I say born, I was actually borntwo months prior to moving here.
(01:10):
So uh we lived right on theoutskirts of uh Parland.
And then uh as I was uh as mymom was giving birth and those
kind of things, uh, we weremoving to Pareland.
We were they were already movinghere, so I I consider myself uh
you know uh living here all mylife.
And so uh that's so that's allyour life, right?
SPEAKER_02 (01:26):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (01:27):
So yeah, and uh so we raised, you know, raised
horses and uh and uh did trailrides and all kinds of things in
Pareland for years and years andyears, and so just kind of
raised here and uh worked here alot, a lot of different areas of
Paraland and did a lot ofvolunteering and things like
that.
So it's been my home.
SPEAKER_02 (01:43):
So especially since it's been all your life in
Paraleland, I can just imaginethe growth that you've seen from
when you were younger to now.
SPEAKER_01 (01:50):
Absolutely like that.
Well, uh yeah, so uh in thebeginning, of course, being
young, not really knowing whatgrowth looked like, uh just saw
it, right?
And and but it was kind of cool,I guess, growing up because we
could see new I'll never forgetwhen we had uh just one Sonic
and then all of a sudden we hadtwo and one Walmart, then we had
two, now we had three and four,and you know, it was kind of
(02:10):
cool seeing that theopportunities uh for businesses
and things like that were werekind of cool.
I didn't have to go far to go,you know, Parallel's kind of
always been the nucleus for me.
It's always I've always tried totell people uh from a marketing
standpoint or even just inconversation that we have the
greatest of everything righthere because within a few
minutes you can have anything inthe world, you know, everything
from NASA and Clear Lake area toHouston and all of it has to
(02:33):
offer and uh Sugarland, allthose kind of things.
So we're kind of the nucleus ofthe hub of the wheel right here,
but it's a good location to comeback home to.
Right.
You know, you feel safe, it's agood community vibe.
SPEAKER_02 (02:44):
Definitely.
That's one thing I always tellpeople, no, I don't leave
Paraland.
And if I do leave Paralyn, it'sfor a sporting event that's
probably like an NRG or toyotacenter, and and that's pretty
much it.
Yeah, that opportunity existsthough, within a short amount of
minutes, right?
Right, exactly.
So tell us a little bit moreabout yourself.
I know you're a Parland native.
What got you into the field?
(03:05):
What are some of theorganizations that you volunteer
with?
Um, just a little bit aboutbook.
SPEAKER_01 (03:09):
Okay.
Well, uh uh went to school here,of course, graduated in 1980.
Uh, actually got my GED uh in1980.
My father had passed away rightprior to that, and I was going
through some struggles, etcetera, trying to get in keep
going in school, et cetera.
And so uh me and my mom werekind of on our own and do doing
our own thing.
Had a brother, younger brotherat that point as well.
(03:30):
So I I got out of school alittle early, graduated with my
GED, went to Alvin CommunityCollege, got my police uh
certification, and then um offuh for some reason uh uh my dad
had done law enforcement priorto this.
Uh and so uh I I guess I kind ofthought that's where I wanted to
go.
I didn't know anything else butpolice work at the time because
I remember uh going to thepolice station, just sitting
(03:52):
there with the dispatchers, andthey would keep me kind of
almost like a babysitter whilemy dad was working.
I mean, back in those days itwas nothing in Maryland.
And then um, and so anyway, butuh once I graduated to the
police academy, I put in myapplications everywhere, and
then I ended up going to work inthe petrochemical industry.
Wow.
And so uh became my mom workedfor a company in Houston and uh
(04:12):
went up there and learned to beelectrical draftsman and did uh
drafting work for about fouryears, five years.
And um, I did odds and endsvarious other things here in
Parland.
I was a manager at the old RadioShack that used to be here.
I worked at the old Kroger'sactually was my very first gig
uh out of out of the box there,so to speak.
And that was when it was acrossthe street on Broadway.
And uh then there was a uh ahardware store called Handy Dan.
(04:36):
I worked there for a littlewhile and actually was in the
same building when Kroger'smoved across the street.
And so it did a lot of those uhlittle small odd and end things.
And then um, and then one day Igot a friend uh that called me.
He was with the policedepartment and uh here in
Parrand and he said, Hey, uh,are you still got your license
and all that?
And I said, Yeah, and he said,Well, one of our mutual friends
was going down to be the chiefof police in Hitchcock, Texas,
(04:58):
and um he's needing some policeofficers because they've uh
terminated everyone that was inthe agency.
They had some corruption goingon, and so they were starting
all starting off fresh.
So I went down there and appliedand got the job and worked there
for uh almost well, almostexactly two years to the day.
Uh then the sheriff's officecalled me and said, Hey, uh,
we're hiring patrol deputies andum uh we know media application
(05:20):
back several years ago.
We're just kind of updatingtheir stuff to see if you're
still interested.
And I said, Well, I love I likewhere I'm at, but it's it's cut
it's cool in Hitchcock, Texas,but uh, you know, make me an
offer.
So they did, and and I came overto Brisoria County.
Uh so I worked for the sheriff'soffice for a number of years,
and then um during that time ortowards the end of that time, I
bought a business here inParaland.
And uh it was actually acombination of two businesses,
(05:42):
an old trophy shop calledPlaques and Plates that was
around for years.
It was the oldest trophy shop inthe whole area, in the south,
south Houston area.
We used to do all of the awardsfor the Houston Livestock Show
and Rodeo and all the all thosethings for um Dad's Club and the
Little League and all that wehad.
I remember when we work inthere, we had thousands of
trophies and stuff like that.
(06:03):
So did that for a little bit.
Um, and we uh merged those twocompanies together.
The other one was a signedcompany, Paraland Signs, and
then became A B Products.
And we've owned that for 25years here in Paraland and went
through all the you know thehassles of owning a business
here in town and uh and the goodpart, uh you know, selling
locally and and doing those kindof things.
And then I had some friends ofmine, some JP's uh justices of
(06:25):
the peace here in in town thathad worked me with me when I was
with the sheriff's office andsaid, Hey, we'd like for you to
consider running for constable.
And the first thing I said is,Why in the world would I want to
do that?
I got a I got a nice businesshere, everything I set my own
hours, I do my own thing.
And uh they said, Look, we thinkyou're the right guy for the
job.
It's going to expand, and weneed someone that can take it to
the next level that can manageit and manage the growth and do
(06:45):
those kind of things.
So I've jumped off into it, and28 years later, I'm still doing
it.
Still doing it.
And so uh it's growing a lot.
It's gone from a part-time uhone-person facility to uh 22
full-time uh employees and a lotof growth, a lot of growth.
SPEAKER_02 (06:59):
Your and your office is located uh kind of in your
killings, right?
SPEAKER_01 (07:02):
Yes, we have uh my main office is on Grand
Boulevard, uh right there,downtown, what I call downtown
parallel.
Most people don't know it asdowntown anymore.
And then we uh uh have asub-office in Alvin.
So we have two areas uh withinwithin precinct three of
Brisoria County.
SPEAKER_02 (07:17):
So being the what what are some of the things that
y'all are involved in with thatas far as being the constable?
SPEAKER_01 (07:23):
Okay, uh so a lot of people do ask questions about
constable, what do we do, etcetera?
So we're you know, in the stateof Texas, every peace officer is
exactly the same.
We get licensed by the sameagency, we take the same
testing, we take the sameacademies.
So peace officers in general areall the same.
However, we generally havedifferent geographical
responsibilities and ours umresponsibilities that are uh
unique to us.
(07:44):
Like in the constable's office,we're more civil oriented.
We take care of the courtrooms,we bailift the courtrooms and
keep security.
We serve civil process thatcomes out of any court in
America.
Uh, we serve that process toanybody that lives here.
And we we can still do all thecriminal stuff.
We can work traffic, we can doall those things, but uh it's
always been my belief that we westay in our lane.
(08:04):
We do our good thing, we doreally good at what we do.
And then the you know, thesheriff's office and the local
PDs they can handle and the DPS,they can do all the criminal
stuff and all that kind ofthings.
Not that we're not asked everyonce in a while to come help
them and and do that, but that'sour forte, and we I enjoy doing
it.
And now, and now and I would Ilook back, I wish I'd started 10
or 15 years even before.
I love it.
(08:24):
I love what I do, and uh and uhthe main thing is interaction
with people.
SPEAKER_02 (08:29):
What are some of the organizations that you're
currently involved in that you Isee you everywhere.
You know, I said the same thingto Jeff because it's true.
Yeah, um, I know you're realinvolved with the Lions Club,
correct?
SPEAKER_01 (08:40):
Yes, I've been in Lions Club since 1985.
Um in in 1980, uh right when Igraduated as well, uh, I wanted
to become a Paraland fireman.
And at that time, they wouldn'tallow anybody under the age of
18.
So I went and started, uhactually started my fire career
or fire background in uhBrookside Village and became a
volunteer fireman over there.
And that was about the time thatthe big explosion happened here
(09:02):
in Paraleland, and uh it scaredme to death.
I was a little, you know, youngfireman, not really knowing what
to do and what to where to goand what to be or anything.
But uh soon after that, I uhwent back.
As soon as I turned 18, I joinedParaland Fire Department.
I was with their volunteerdepartment for 28 years, uh,
retired as their first assistantchief uh uh out of the volunteer
department.
And I was the kind of the badguy because I'm the one that uh
(09:23):
recommended going from anall-volunteer department to uh
what they call the combinationdepartment and now a full-time
career department.
And so um a lot of thevolunteers didn't really think
that was cool, but at the timeapparently it was growing,
tremendously growing, and yougot to be able to manage that
and and and move with thegrowth.
And so um uh we were justanswering way too many calls
(09:45):
during the day on weekends andweeknights, no problem.
Had enough volunteers to takecare of everything, but that
Monday through Friday, 6 to 6was giving us a struggle.
And then, of course, throughthat, I became a member of the
chamber.
I was always out in the schoolsdoing fire prevention education.
Uh people would see me and say,hey, come be a part of this.
So I joined the neighborhoodcenter.
I joined uh the 100 club inParaland.
Um, a lot of those organizationsI became board members, some of
(10:08):
them I'm still board members on.
There's three right now that I'muh, well, two of them I'm
president of, I'm treasurer of acouple of them.
So I enjoy the interaction andthe camaraderie that has to do
with 501c3s and nonprofits.
In fact, uh I was gonna retireno matter what in three years,
and that was one of the thingsthat I was going to jump off
into is become a certified uhnonprofit executive and try to
(10:30):
figure out how I can help morenonprofits do the right thing.
Just as simple as followingtheir 990s and getting that on
time to making budgets andrunning meetings and conducting
meetings how to five, how toeven file for their 501c3 and
keep that.
I I'm pretty good at that.
I've started three or fournonprofits now, so I I wanted to
that's what I wanted to do.
SPEAKER_02 (10:50):
I think it's definitely hard, especially
getting into a nonprofit worldwhere you want to do something
special as a cause, a goodcause, but it then you just go
in not knowing anything.
Absolutely, and then it justbecomes a lot.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So that that's definitelysomething I've seen.
So you're happy, you've beendoing this, you've been doing
the constable precinct precinctthree, constable.
(11:10):
Why?
SPEAKER_01 (11:11):
Why change?
Yeah.
So uh in the 1990s, uh, I wasasked to run for city council,
and I was really considered ituh in the early 90s, and then 95
rolled around.
That's when I got approachedabout the constable's position.
And I've been in lawenforcement, I love doing that,
and uh, you know, I figured ifif someone's coming to me and
asking me to do something,that's kind of my calling.
(11:32):
It's an opportunity, right?
And so um uh I went off into theconstable's world and and did
that as opposed to you know, kidall that's gonna be around
forever, and I can always diveinto it at any point.
So that's the way I looked atit, and I went into the
constable's deal knowing thatthat I could make a difference.
And so um when uh Mayor Reed, uhlongtime good friend, uh and and
(11:52):
certainly a good communityadvocate, uh was he called me
and said, Hey, I'm thinkingabout stepping down.
Would you think about runningfor mayor?
And I said, Well, I you know, Ireally like what I'm doing now.
I don't know, we'll kind of seewhatever.
And just so happened, about thesame time, uh Mayor Cole, uh
Kevin, had had uh we hadconversed a little bit and he
was interested in running formayor.
(12:13):
And I said, You know what?
I like it where I'm at.
I'm just gonna stay where I'mat, you go for it, and you know,
you know, good luck witheverything, right?
And uh and I told him, I said,no, make sure you don't mess up
because I'm gonna come in andrun again if you don't.
But uh no, he he did it, he'sdone a great job, uh, uh a great
opportunity.
So I uh like I had indicatedearlier, I was gonna retire uh
at the end of this.
(12:33):
We serve a four-year term asconstable.
I've been in 28 years now,unopposed 90% of the time, 99,
95% of that time.
And I was gonna retire this lasttime.
I've had a, you know, I said,you know, it's time to turn over
the reins, let a new breath offresh air come in, see if
there's something that needs tobe changed and and and keep up
with today's society.
And so I was gonna retire anywayin four years, or actually three
(12:55):
years now.
Uh and so all of a sudden thesedoors opened.
Um and so when uh Maricolaannounced that he was gonna run,
I said, you know, I went homeand prayed about it, talked to
Michelle uh about it, and wejust kind of said, you know
what, if we're gonna do it,let's do it.
And so I said, you know, I'm I'mjumping in all feet.
And so it's an opportunity, I'mgonna do it.
And um it's something I've kindof always wanted to do.
(13:17):
I'm more I'm more so in linewith running for council, I
thought, at the time, uh, forfor uh all this time because uh,
you know, the council membersactually make a difference.
They get to vote on the thingsand discuss and cuss and
everything else about it.
Uh the mayor is just uh afigurehead, uh so to speak, but
he's you know really a commanderin chief, but he's uh he's the
face of the Parland, right?
(13:37):
Right.
And so you know what, that'sreally what I like doing too.
So I really like going out andand selling and marketing uh and
and being an ambassador forParaland, and that's what I'm
hoping to do.
SPEAKER_02 (13:46):
So would you coming in as the mayor, what are some
of the things that you're gonnabe running on?
SPEAKER_01 (13:50):
What what what are some of your uh Well, so I've
had a I've had a longtimestretch with uh with you know uh
you know being in the businessfor 25 years, being active in
the chamber for so many years,uh, and all these nonprofit
organizations, I really want tosee Paraland.
I've always even though we'vealways pushed for Paraland to be
um a place where people want tocome visit and and and do those
(14:12):
kind of things, I really thinkthat's a that's a big thing.
But I think also people feelcomfortable here as a community.
I think it's uh I despite whatall we ever try to do, I think
we're always gonna be that kindof a bedroom community.
People love coming here,bringing, raising their family
here.
We have great schools,phenomenal schools.
And so I think people move herefor a purpose.
I think they feel safe.
I think they feel like this iscommunity, it has a little bit
(14:33):
of everything.
And again, within 15, 20minutes, you can be anywhere and
do anything else you want to do,and then come back home.
And you know that your house isprotected, you know that um uh
your family's protected.
Uh do we have crime?
Absolutely.
I mean there's no community inthe world that doesn't have
crime.
And so um uh, but it's much lesshere than is it is in any of our
(14:54):
regional counterparts.
And so people uh I think peopleknow that.
Um and and the reality industrydoes a great job of marketing
that.
And so um I really want to pushfor more things for when people
do come visit our community andspend their money here and then
go away.
I want to use that money, right?
So arts, uh uh things thatpeople can come, walkable
(15:15):
districts, things that peoplecan come and visit for the day,
have a great time, want uh wantto be part of Paralands growth
in those kind of areas, and thenspend time here and spend money
here, and then go back to theirhomes, wherever that may be,
too.
So I'd really like to see somemore art arts.
I'd like to see, I've alwayswanted, I've been shooting for a
(15:35):
skate park for probably 40 yearsnow.
I've been trying to get a skatepark in town.
Uh I would love to see a skatepark.
I just think that's a greatopportunity for our youth.
I'm one of those believers thatif you don't do something to
collaborate that, that you know,they end up in places that they
probably should not be.
Right, 100%.
And so parks do that.
Parks are already centralizedcentric people, uh, skate parks
(15:55):
centric people, and I thinkthere's a good collaboration
that could happen there.
But um, doing things likemarkets, uh, you know, the um
part of the re downtownrevitalization project I set in
on many of those meetings.
I'd love to see that downtown uhredone, but I realize it's it's
all about money.
Right.
Uh a lot of it about money.
So some private partnerships aregonna have to really come into
(16:16):
play there.
SPEAKER_02 (16:18):
So with with you coming in, so one of the things
is I love Parland and just likethe hometown, small town feel it
has, but at the same time, it'shuge.
Yes.
So how do we keep that smalltown feel?
And and uh what I'm worriedabout is having more franchises
come in and losing our smallbusinesses.
SPEAKER_01 (16:36):
Yes, a small b that's what I was a small
business.
Started with two of them andcombined them.
Like I said, we did trophies forevery every uh team here for
years and years and years.
That that's a struggle.
Uh it's a balance.
Now we can't, you know, I'm allabout free enterprise.
Um, you know, if people areowning property, they ought to
be able to sell it and do whatthey need to do on it within
reason, right?
Uh we have codes and ordinancesand those things in place that
(16:59):
will control and manage thegrowth that's happening.
Uh so I I I I it I know it's astruggle for some, but I uh, you
know, even recently I reflectedback and I still think just uh
if you're really involved in thein the in the things in the
nonprofits and organizationsthat are in town, that small
town feel is still there.
(17:20):
We when something happens in ourcommunity, we rally up and we
all come together and we make itwork, we get it done, and then
we go back to our busy lives,right?
I don't think that happens in alot of other communities.
I mean, we saw it in CentralTexas when that happened.
We all went there, right?
That was a statewide efforttrying to get things back in
line.
I think that happens more so inParaland, too.
Protecting the small businessowner, you know, that's getting
(17:42):
tough everywhere uh for smallbusinesses, period.
Um there were some propospropositions that were one about
tax incentives for uh businessesand and small businesses
inventory-wise.
That you know, I'm all for that.
If we can figure out how toincentivize small businesses to
get to keep them going, I thinkthe downtown revitalization
project's gonna be made up of alot of small businesses.
(18:03):
The franchise businesses, Ithink they do a lot of work.
Uh, you know, people have saidfor years, well, I don't
understand why so-and-so doesn'tcome here, or why don't they
build a restaurant here, or whydon't they do that?
Those companies spend a lot ofmoney uh coming and looking.
And they say, you know, if um ifthe demographics are right, then
we'll build here.
If it's not, then we'll go toanother location.
And we still may be in linesomewhere maybe 30 restaurants
(18:26):
down the road, but uh eventuallywe'll have all those things.
But I think most demographicalpeople look at Parallel again.
I think I I am pretty certainthat a majority of people come
home, probably 60, 70 percent ofthem, come from Houston or Clear
Lake or other businessopportunities.
They come home, they go to theirhome, they want to go walk
around the parks, do someexercising, go to a few craft
(18:48):
shows, do some kind of thingslike that, and then go home, go
to bed and feel safe.
Uh so I think that's what Idon't know that the business,
the company, the uh communitydoesn't want a whole lot of
growth, right?
But you gotta have some.
Because we have all of we wantall this protection.
We want the fire and the policeand EMS and the infrastructure
and the roads and all thosethings done, that all takes
(19:10):
money, right?
And so uh if there's businessesnot here creating sales tax and
other generating uh inventorytax and those kind of things,
then guess who's gotta pay that?
Yeah, right.
And so it's a good balance.
It needs to be a good balanceand stay that way.
I agree.
SPEAKER_02 (19:24):
I uh I that's one thing.
Um, you know, when I was young,I've been here since the early
90s, 90s, I think, fifth grade,graduated, joined the military.
I said I was never coming backbecause I just wanted to grow,
you know, grow.
I wanted to get out in the worldand experience it.
After I did my military service,I said, all I want to do is go
back to Paralyn.
(19:44):
That's all I wanted.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You know, I've come here.
I've uh you know, I tell peoplea lot about you know, I've got
this place has seen me grow.
Absolutely.
You know, from a kid to a man,mistakes, you know, everything.
And I I I love it.
I love it here.
I have what's the biggestproblem that you see in the city
(20:05):
that we don't talk enough about?
SPEAKER_01 (20:07):
Communication.
I mean, I I one of the thingsthat I would really like to see
happen is is the ability uh toto and I'm not even sure I don't
know if I know the answers, butit seems like we miss a lot of
opportunity to get more in youknow those few citizens that
say, Hey, I wish more of thiswas happening in Parliament, and
and then I turn around and go,Well, that is happening.
(20:28):
You're just not connected to it.
How do we how do we fix that,right?
We have a superb uh mediasection, I guess, within the
city, if you want to call itthat division.
And maybe we need to work onthat somehow where we have a
community calendar, um somethingthat everybody can go up to.
I know the chamber worksdesperately to try to have a
community calendar, but a lot ofpeople feel like, oh, I gotta be
a member of the chamber before Ican get on there, you know, kind
(20:49):
of that kind of that feeling,right?
Even though I know it's notthere.
But I need I want to getsomething that that that we can
collaborate and connect on sothat people have one source that
they can go to and say that'sthe right source, and this is
where it's happening.
You know, used to in the day, wetalked about it almost every
weekend now, but um we go tothings and we say, you know, I
remember the day that we onlyhad one, maybe two events a
(21:10):
month, and everybody kind ofknew when that was.
It just happened every year, andthat's where everybody went.
Now we got three or four or fiveevery weekend, and uh they
overlap each other, right?
And it and that's part of thegrowth, that's part of the the
greatness, I guess if you will.
You have it now a choice ofseveral events you can go to.
Uh, and then you'll go two orthree weekends without nothing
going on.
Yeah.
And you have to wonder, didthose nonprofits get together
(21:31):
and try to work something out,or did that event try to get
together and see if there wassomething else?
The visitors and and uhconvention bureaus doing a great
job of marketing things here intown.
But I will tell you that theeast end, I I look at I look at
ends instead of sides.
I don't say east side or westside, I say ends, east end and
west end, because I look atourselves as elongated 14-mile
(21:51):
piece of property.
Yeah, yeah.
And uh but the people on theeast end don't know that there's
all kinds of events going on attown center at the west end.
The west end doesn't seem tocollaborate over to the east
end.
And I think as downtown paranoiarevitalizes and those things
happening, we I'd like to seethat cross somehow or another,
that's let's get across eachother, right?
Right.
And I know every every communityis broken up into cultural
(22:12):
divisions as well.
So uh seeing we we have uh lasttime I heard, I think we have 27
dialects in Dawson High School.
That's a lot of differentdialects of people that are
living here.
We're we're uh we're a uh asmudge pod of people, right?
And so uh we wanna I wanna howdo we capture those people?
How do they stay here andengage?
SPEAKER_02 (22:32):
That's a lot.
I didn't know it was that many,to be honest with you.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
What's okay, so we what what'sone of the things that we're
currently doing as a city thatyou just want to continue to
build on?
SPEAKER_01 (22:43):
Well, I think that uh, you know, uh that's a that's
a pretty good question.
Um I think our parks and recorddepartment does a great job.
You know, unfortunately, a lotof communities suffer because of
the of the decisions thatprevious councils made or
previous managers made,supervisors, and so I think
Paraland got caught up in anissue where there was a lot of
(23:04):
growth happening, but a lot alot of lot of forward thinking
wasn't done where we acquiredsome parkland, maybe some larger
pieces that would make it into agood a better park, let's say
for example.
Uh so we struggle with that now,and and you know, if we want to
go in and buy that or um youknow attain that land somehow,
the price has just goneastronomically crazy, right?
(23:25):
And so the taxpayers of uh, youknow, if they want more of that,
then they're gonna have to payto have that done.
So unfortunately, uh the schooldistrict, however, did a much
greater job of going out andacquiring a lot of land early on
and saying, you know, we mayhave to have uh based on our
growth, we may have to havethese partials for schools,
right?
Those the city councils back inthose days didn't do as much of
(23:46):
that.
unknown (23:46):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (23:47):
And some would say, oh well, well, you know, that
you know, that may be a waste,right?
We we may not ever need thatland.
Well, if you had that land nowand you had to turn it, look how
much money, you know, weprobably could pay off a lot of
debt, you know uh if we had doneit early on, just like in it,
just in the private.
But I think we do a good jobthere.
I know that we've done a greatjob with our water sources and
our infrastructure on the water.
(24:07):
I know we're we're again we'rean older city, especially on the
east end.
Infrastructure's gonna have tobe redone over time.
That costs money as well.
We can't do it at yesterday'sdollar, you know.
And so um that's gonna be astruggle.
But I think our our supervisorsand people that are in our
public works department aredoing a great job of keeping up.
So I'd like to see that, youknow, continue.
(24:28):
Our fire department and policedepartment are doing a they are
so much just being from the lawenforcement side and from the
fire side all these years, weare so far advanced than other
communities are.
And I know the citizens don'tfeel that maybe, or some don't
don't feel that or sense that,but while it is so in working
with so many other agencies, I'mjust so proud of our Paradelline
(24:50):
Police Department and firedepartment.
They're so much more advanced,so much more aggressive in their
training, their thinking, theirabilities.
And that keeps our crime and ourand our responses low.
We're not gonna, we can't doaway with traffic, we can't do
away with growth.
All we can do is manage it,right?
And so I think they do a greatjob of what they do.
(25:10):
Are they perfect?
Absolutely not.
Nobody's gonna be perfect.
I mean, I want to move to theperfect bubble city somewhere,
wherever that's at, that's wherewe all want to go, right?
But uh we're gonna make somemistakes, and uh, but you know,
I think if we come out on thegood side of everything, I think
we're in good shape.
When uh let's say like in the80s or 90s, did you ever picture
Paragon's growth to be thistype?
(25:31):
Absolutely not.
Again, I go back to uh we we hada uh Cullen Cullen Boulevard and
518 uh that actually made acurve right there, uh, and that
was called Dead Man's Curve.
And um, and people would comeout of out of Houston and flying
down Cullen Boulevard.
And uh back then I was with thefire department, and
unfortunately they didn't makethe curve.
(25:51):
And so uh that got its taglinethere.
But uh, you know, when I wasgrowing up as I was in high
school, actually uh even priorto high school, uh the uh some
pr pretty predominant familiesin the area knew uh owned a lot
of land, and we did a lot ofplowing.
I I worked on tractors forprobably four or five, maybe six
years during my what we used tocall intermediate and high
(26:13):
school areas, and I would go outand plow fields after school,
and we knew soy and rice andthose kind of things, belled
hay.
I used to be able to throw abell of hay.
I bet I couldn't even pick oneup now, but uh but it was um you
know, we there was cattleeverywhere, everything was just
like home.
You know, it was a ranch tall,everybody knew everybody.
(26:33):
I mean, that was back in thedays when you know mom and dad
said, okay, be home before thestreetlights come on, you know,
and uh and uh but the otherthing you'd get in trouble in
school and you'd think mom anddad didn't know about it.
And when you got home, theyknew.
So everybody, you know, talked,but so that growth has happened.
And um again, I never thoughtwe'd see, you know, four
different types of Walmarts andthree sonics and all these other
(26:56):
things that have come along.
But I love it.
I I mean I I I like it becauseit gives me variety, it gives me
the opportunity to not leavehome, still have have variety
and still be home, still.
SPEAKER_02 (27:07):
Yeah, I think uh, you know, I wish more people
understood that.
Uh I have like family membersand things like that.
How come you don't ever leave?
I said, why?
Everything's right here.
Absolutely.
Why would I go anywhere?
What kind of food are youcraving?
It's in the studio.
Absolutely.
You know, what do you want todo?
It's here.
SPEAKER_01 (27:21):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_02 (27:23):
What's what's uh okay, so with with Paraland
growing bigger and gettingbigger, and what are what can we
do better in Paraland for theyoung kids that and the teens?
SPEAKER_01 (27:33):
Yeah, so that's always been a missing uh niche,
right?
And um I was set on the parksboard for six years, I'm
actually seven, but you know, westruggled with that.
The leagues have always beenvery active and very good, like
the the little league, thebaseball, the football, all
those have been very active.
But we had a new growth ofpeople, kiddos come in that were
wanting skateboarding and otherthings that we weren't
(27:54):
accustomed to, right?
Now, you know, trying to fulfillthose things, fill those little
niches in in our parks or in oursystem, that's a struggle
because that because what yousaw, what I saw from the inside
looking out, was parents thatwere raising those those
children and wanting thosethings.
And then we had parents thathave lived here for many years
saying, oh, we don't need that,we got baseball, we got
(28:16):
football.
So you had this struggle as, youknow, I'm not giving up that
territory because you're gonnayou're gonna you're gonna put
concrete and make it into askate park, but we can use it as
a baseball field.
So that's always been kind ofthe deal.
But what I found as a policeofficer is that again, like I
said earlier, if you don'tengage these kiddos and keep
them, I'd much rather have agroup of kiddos and young adults
in one area, have a policeofficer interacting with them,
(28:39):
uh, doing things with them,playing basketball, whatever
that looks like, than the notthan the not.
You know, they could be out.
And I'm not saying I'm certainlynot saying every child is is a
bad child, but if if some peoplego adrift, they have
opportunities, you know, and soI don't want to see that.
I think it's safer um to have acollective unit, you know, in
places, in pockets, those kindof things too, as well.
(29:01):
So I uh we have always struggledwith that.
So I've always thought we couldhave one of those uh like a main
event, uh, you know, the biggerline.
And I know some some privateowners have tried to get that
going.
I think it's interesting that Isee posts on Facebook from time
to time where people say, well,the city needs to do a better
job of bringing this company inor this this type of atmosphere
(29:21):
in, or you know, a uh you know,a main event in.
Well, we don't, the city doesn'thave control over that.
All we can do is say, hey,here's you know, uh private
property owner, you know, canyou go and see if you can find
somebody that's like that to buyyour property?
Or uh, you know, so uh I think alot of people think the city
controls what does or doesn'tcome in.
The only thing we do is is onceyou decide that you're going to
(29:44):
build, you have to build tothese conditions.
Right.
And you have to meet theseobjectives.
And you have to be in the zonecorrectly, or else you guys for
a zoning change.
So so that I think the laypeople and the citizens that
live here don't understand thatthere's a there's some puzzle
pieces there, but the citydoesn't have really.
Now we have an economicdevelopment corporation that
goes out and really looks atindustry and good growth and try
(30:07):
and and I know for a fact theyhave over the years looked for
clean growth.
Some of the medical field up inthe in the Beltway area, that's
all good, clean, good inventory,good taxation, good partners to
have in our community.
We don't want to haveindustrial, a lot of industrial
stuff that puts off hazardousmaterials or those kind of
(30:29):
things.
We don't want to see that.
Now we have we have good, cleanindustrial companies here.
And I live right behind rightnext to one, in fact, right now
right now.
And those are good partners tohave as well.
Um, but they have regulationsthey got to follow, both both
federal, state, and local thatthey got to follow to make their
site and uh environmentallyfriendly and clean.
So I think we've done a it'shard to go out and you know, the
(30:52):
EDC and other people go out tothese uh conventions and they
try to say, come to Parentland,come to Parentland, but we can't
force them.
We can't force them.
And so the same thing happens onthe kids' side, right?
We want, I I really still trulythink we need some type of
convention center.
It doesn't have to be huge, butI think we need a place that can
hold, you know, tens ofthousands of people, or at least
(31:12):
10,000 people, that becausethere's so many of our
nonprofits and our things thatare having to go outside of our
community to host an event.
That's money that we're missingout on.
Somehow or another we need tocapture that.
Uh, and every time we do a studyand we look at those things, it
ends up being a sports-relatedthing.
Well, uh, we haven't got enoughsports stuff, I think.
(31:33):
We need something for the arts,something for the craft show,
something for the chamber tohave their banquet at,
something, you know, all we'remissing.
Everybody's going to, you know,over to the Lone Star Museum or
they're going down to SouthShore Harbor.
And the only reason why isbecause we don't have a facility
large enough to host that.
SPEAKER_02 (31:47):
So that's uh amazing.
Um I'm I'm I love hearing allthis input that you know, some
of the things I I didn't know.
One one thing I have, so you saythe Paralleline, like the so any
business can come toParalleline?
Absolutely.
The council and nobody hasanything to say what type of
businesses come in and come out?
SPEAKER_01 (32:08):
No, uh the the previous councils and currently
councils, uh they you know, along time ago we have these
comprehensive plans and we do uhzoning.
We have zoning in Paraland.
So we uh they've tried to do thebest they could to say, okay, on
this major street, we want thistype of environment along both
sides of that.
Then we have these residentialstreets, we don't want that.
(32:29):
We want residential areas.
So each our parent uh uh city iszoned out as best they could do.
You know, now when new roadscome in, like McCard Road when
it came in, that changed thezoning along McCard Road.
It was all residential.
Now it got changed becausethat's a major or uh corridor
now.
And so the property owners thatthat probably had or were
thinking that, oh, I'll justsell all my property to to a
(32:50):
house, somebody wants to build ahouse one day, and well now they
can sell it to build a stop andgo or whatever.
And so we can't we can't umrestrict the only thing we can
do is say if you're going tobuild a U-totem or a stop and go
or or a strip center or whateverin this area, as long as it
meets the conditions, they don'tthey don't even have to come to
city council.
(33:11):
They can pull their permit andstart building.
SPEAKER_03 (33:13):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (33:13):
Now, if there's some change that they need to do, if
they're trying to put somethingthat's not compliant with that
zone, then they got to goforward planning and zoning and
possibly even city council tosay, hey, I want to change this
one thing to make this work.
And at that point, we can say,No, you're not gonna change it.
Uh, it's gotta stay this way, orbecause we we speak for the
people that are around you.
Yeah, we're there to protectthem first.
(33:35):
We didn't ask you to come, youdecided to come, and so because
of that, you got to meet thiscriteria.
And so um uh I've seen that overthe years, and that's a hard
decision.
That's a really hard decision.
Some would say, you know, Iremember there was an issue with
uh independence park.
There's a partial across fromIndependence Park that wanted to
put in a um a gas station andand a little small little strip
(33:55):
center.
And everybody came out and votedagainst it.
They filled the councilchambers.
That's your opportunity to gosay no.
I don't want that in my area.
Is there good in it and bad init?
Yeah, bad is possibly uh maybeit could bring a little bit more
traffic flow.
The good is is I don't know howmany times I've gone across the
street to my local conveniencestores when I run out of a loaf
of bread or I need a milk onSunday morning or something that
(34:16):
it's kind of convenient to haveit there, right?
And so uh there's good and badin it.
And it also, depending on theway it's structured and way it's
built, it could add propertyvalue, it can increase your
property values.
Of course, when you increaseyour property value, that
increase the tax bill at the endof the day.
So all those things happen.
But if you ever decide to sell,that's gonna it may increase
your property value right there.
SPEAKER_02 (34:37):
Yeah, I had the I'm you know, there was a there was
a thing about mccard road, andthere was a an apartment
apartment complex that was, youknow, had to go to city council.
And I uh, you know, I sat in ona few of those just because I
was curious.
Yeah.
And uh yeah, I love the way thatwas handled.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (34:52):
I I I I agree 100% what and and you know it's funny
because uh if they they don'tagain, they were they weren't
they were required to go andgive uh uh public opinion or uh
public input because of thesomething they wanted to change.
Now, if they just moved, youknow, just slightly left of that
scale, they wouldn't have evenhad to have done that.
They would have gone in and justbuilt and everybody would have
(35:12):
been non- They probably wouldn'thave been happy, but there's
nothing you can do to stop it.
Right.
Okay.
And so uh that there's achallenge in that.
Um uh and that's happened onseveral pieces across town.
SPEAKER_02 (35:21):
What's let's say uh what's something that you
believe in, that you believe infor Paralyn, even if it's not
gonna be a popular decision, achoice, maybe.
SPEAKER_01 (35:32):
Is there anything like that?
Um Well, I think ourtransportation is one of our uh
struggles right now.
I tend to believe, and I don'thave any uh uh just based on my
involvement in the community andthe nonprofits and things that I
interact with, I tend to believeour community is getting older
in age and so uh demographicallyuh getting older.
(35:52):
And I think at some point we'regonna have to think about how do
we get those people around?
You know, do we offer a service?
Do we do we do something localuh with a service?
Do we co-op with some othercompany to do the service, a
metro or somebody else?
But I think part of gettingpeople off the streets or
getting traffic reduction is isoffering one vehicle as opposed
to 30 vehicles that are takingup space, right?
(36:15):
I don't know if I have theanswer to that.
Um, and I don't know if it'sgood or bad.
I haven't seen, I've seen alittle bit of trials that
they've attempted to do.
It didn't work out as well asthey thought.
But I also think that the otherthing we're gonna struggle with
is as we we know there's aninfrastructure plan in place for
our road, our transportationroads.
And so when those, when 518, forexample, starts to grow, and
(36:37):
it's gonna grow, it's a it's atext dot road and it and it
needs to grow.
It needs to grow wider.
I wish they'd done it a longtime ago as opposed to now, but
that's the way it is.
When that starts, it's amazingto me that as we start to expand
to get make things better,people complain because of
what's going on to make thingsbetter.
And so you're not gonna makeeverybody happy anyway.
I think we all have a uniquenessabout us to be able to absorb
(36:59):
that.
Some know that uh with growthcomes some change, uh, it comes
some struggles, but man, at theend of the day, when it's all
done, I think it's a lot better.
You know, we we went McCardRoad's a good example.
I'd hardly ever go on 518anymore.
I I hit McCard Road and it'sit's great.
You know, did I ever think I'duse it?
I didn't think so at all.
But yeah, I do now.
(37:19):
And Magnolia, I mean, I thinkthe I think the forward thinking
of councils before that thoughtabout those plans and put them
in place and put them on print.
Everybody got to see them,everybody got an opportunity to
put input into those, and theythen approved them, and now
we're just not getting to thepoint of putting them in.
I think that's where we lose thecommunication.
People think that all of asudden somebody came up on
council drinking this thing upand said we're gonna put this
(37:40):
road there.
A lot of that was designed yearsago.
Years ago.
We don't communicate that verywell.
SPEAKER_02 (37:47):
What um me is that as the town grows, one of the
things that I've seen is a lotmore, I guess, homeless people.
How how is how is something likethat handled or how is that I
don't I don't know if you havethe answer or Yeah, uh yeah,
unfortunately I don't have theanswer.
SPEAKER_01 (38:02):
I what I you're you're absolutely right.
I do see more and more.
I think we have uh I think lasttime I heard we have like 12
confirmed uh people we interactwith on a on a daily basis or
weekly basis anyway.
There's probably many more.
So I think the key is to getahead of it.
Um I know uh one of our cities,the south of us, ha struggled
(38:24):
with that.
They didn't get ahead of it andthen they all of a sudden
started causing us a lot ofproblems.
A lot of what I see is notallowed to begin with.
Um and I'm not not talking aboutjust homeless, but peddlers, uh
things like that.
When you start allowing thingslike that to happen, it tends to
allow other things to grow.
And so it's kind of like, oh,well, they got a rig with it, so
I'm gonna come do it too.
SPEAKER_03 (38:45):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (38:45):
And I noticed just today, in fact, I think it was
in today's paper where Houstonturned or Harris County turned
down the peddlers uh uh thing uhcountywide, which I thought I,
you know, I didn't get to hearthe conversation, so I don't
know what all happened there.
But you know, it's illegal to topedal anything from a state
right away anyway.
You're not even supposed to beon a state right-of-way
physically, being standing ormoving or doing anything on a
state right-of-way.
(39:06):
It to me that's more of anenforcement thing.
It's already a state law.
You can't be there, just get thelocal law enforcement to go by
and say, hey, you can't be here,move on.
Uh in the city of Parland, wehave a permitting process.
You have to have a permit inorder to solicit.
Uh, that's for the solicitationside.
On the homeless side, I don't uhagain, I one of the things I
think we could do, uh I knowthere's a couple of camps around
(39:27):
town, but they tend to be onproperty that is overgrown.
And have we, I don't know theanswer to this, but have we
reached out to that propertyowner and say, hey, can you can
you undercut this?
Can you brush this out, clean itup, clean it?
First of all, it makes theproperty look more valuable,
better, but it also doesn'tprovide any opportunity, right?
Uh I think if we and then theother side of the whole coin is
(39:47):
is those that do need help, howdo you help them?
Where do you where do you getthat help?
I know uh we have a friendly uhvisitor at the neighborhood
center that comes in all thetime, and I know our goal at the
neighborhood center is to try toget people back on their feet,
not to not to continue to uhfeed that machine, right?
And we try to help them say,hey, you know, what about
getting a job?
You know, whatever that lookslike uh in their life.
(40:09):
Uh a lot of its mental health uhand and and the challenges that
come along with that.
And I think unfortunatelyAmerica as a whole is is
beginning to see that.
Yeah.
Uh and so that's that's achallenge as well.
SPEAKER_02 (40:22):
What does uh success look like for you in four years?
SPEAKER_01 (40:26):
You know, uh still still doing what I'm doing.
Yeah, you know, I love life, Ilove people, I love engaging
people, I like being around uhmy community.
I think I'm one of the uniqueones that has had the
opportunity and and God hasblessed me to be able to be
involved in many, manyorganizations over time.
(40:48):
Many have come and gone, uh, etcetera, but it's allowed me to
open my eyes to a differentpoint of view from every aspect
of our community.
I hope I'm still able to dothat.
I hope I'm healthy, being ableto engage.
I want to be, I want to be acollaborator.
I want to be those those.
I enjoy uh when someone calls meand says, hey, I'm thinking
about starting an organization.
(41:09):
How do I go about doing that?
That makes me feel like I'vedone my job.
I tell my kids all the timethat, you know, and I have this
little blurb that they did whenI did a Men Who Cook way back in
the days, and they they saidthey made a statement and said,
Dad, you're too involved, youknow.
And I said, But but yes, I'minvolved, but you are with me
too, right?
And so I'm building this, uh,I'm building now what I want to
(41:31):
leave you into the future.
Now, one stayed, one's movedoff, but you know, I want I want
our community to be somethingthat people will, you know, we
don't it I think there's thismisnomer that people just move
here and then uh and then theypass away here and then the city
just becomes dormant.
Well, that's not what happens,right?
The reality is people continueto move here.
What is that purpose?
What is that reason?
Well, I'm hoping to leave alegacy that that people will
(41:54):
continue to want to move here,enjoy life here, and grow and
bring their kids here and dothose kind of things, bring
family here.
And I hope I'm still able to doall that at the end of the day.
That's amazing.
SPEAKER_02 (42:05):
What do you want people to remember or to get
away to get from this podcast?
What do you want people toremember or to get from this
podcast?
SPEAKER_01 (42:13):
Well, uh, I need people to remember I'm just I'm
just a plain old buck.
I'm just I'm not nothing fancy.
I have a how I have a mortgage,I have uh, I pay taxes, I um I
uh I get involved in mycommunity.
I'm not, you know, I think eachindividual on council or
commissioner's court or whateverwe're or even an organizational
(42:34):
board, we all bring a, you know,God provided us a uniqueness,
each of us.
We have a unique talent.
And I think each of us have toharness that talent and bring it
into the room and say, how canwe be best served, right?
Some are really, really good atfinances and things like that.
Some are really good atcollaboration, uh, some are good
at at you know budgets and doingall those kind of things.
(42:55):
I just want, I just I I um Iwant everything to be, I want
people to know that first ofall, I'm open, that I they can
come to me and ask me.
I may not know the answers.
I'm pretty resourceful, uh, havea lot of resources, but I also
uh I I will admit I don't knowall the answers.
Right.
Uh and and you know, even thoughI can study the budget, I can
(43:17):
study, I I watch City Councilonline probably, I would say 80%
of the year I'm watching CityCouncil online.
Sometimes I'm actuallyphysically there.
And I've been doing that for 25,30 years.
Some of the stuff I hear themvote on, I'll go, eh, I probably
wouldn't win, you know, but I'mnot I'm not privy to everything,
I'm not privy to the background.
And so and I'm and I'm veryquick to say I don't want to
judge a council member of theirvote because maybe they're privy
(43:40):
to something I'm not, right?
And so um I want to make surethat that that I I'm not gonna
be perfect, and um and then andand and I want to be able to uh
have grace to be able to gothrough and and make some
challenges.
Uh I don't get a vote, but Iprobably do get a say.
(44:01):
And you know, if if a if a if agroup of individuals or citizens
want something one way, they atleast want to be able to portray
that in a right way.
SPEAKER_02 (44:09):
That's it.
Buck Buck, I really appreciateyou coming in.
And and um, you know, on thispodcast, I I spotlight, you
know, veterans and firstresponders, and I started to to
branch off to leaders in thecommunity.
You fall under the firstresponder, but you also fall
under the leaders.
And you've been a leader in thiscommunity for a long time.
Uh I and I appreciate it.
(44:30):
Uh, continue doing what you'redoing, and I look forward to
seeing what what happens nextfor it.
SPEAKER_01 (44:34):
Okay.
Well, I appreciate theopportunity, and uh, you know,
uh, God willing, everything willwork out the way the way I hope
uh that it does.
And and if it doesn't, then uhyou know I'm okay with that as
well.
I'm still not I'm not goinganywhere, still gonna be
engaged, still gonna be doingthings.
Uh it's not gonna slow me down.
Yes, sir, and I appreciate it.
Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_02 (44:52):
And you guys, thank you for tuning in.
As always, if you're in acrisis, be sure to dial 988.
Uh check on your friends andfamily this holiday season.
Mental health is real.
That's what I wanted to say.
So uh again, Buck, thank you forbeing here.
And as always, guys, CharlieMike.
The podcast of veterans helping veterans
talking about things happeningin the veteran community, things
we've experienced and overcome,such as addictions, PTSD,
depression, legal trouble.
And we also promoteveteran-owned businesses.
If you're talking about it,we're talking about it.
(00:24):
This is Charlie Mike thePodcast.
SPEAKER_02 (00:31):
Yo, welcome back to another episode of Charlie Mike
the Podcast.
As always, I'm your host, Raul.
Today I got a special guest inthe house, and it's Buck
Stevens.
Now, let me tell you, BuckStevens, I'm not going to tell
him.
You tell him a little bit aboutyourself.
And um what what brings you heretoday?
SPEAKER_01 (00:49):
Okay, well, um, first of all, thank you.
Thank you for uh providing theopportunity for me to be here
and and be a part of this.
Um always looking for ways toengage the community.
So this is uh something like Isaid, I haven't ever done one
before.
So this is gonna be new for me.
But uh native Paraland, beenhere all my life, uh uh born and
raised.
I say born, I was actually borntwo months prior to moving here.
(01:10):
So uh we lived right on theoutskirts of uh Parland.
And then uh as I was uh as mymom was giving birth and those
kind of things, uh, we weremoving to Pareland.
We were they were already movinghere, so I I consider myself uh
you know uh living here all mylife.
And so uh that's so that's allyour life, right?
SPEAKER_02 (01:26):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (01:27):
So yeah, and uh so we raised, you know, raised
horses and uh and uh did trailrides and all kinds of things in
Pareland for years and years andyears, and so just kind of
raised here and uh worked here alot, a lot of different areas of
Paraland and did a lot ofvolunteering and things like
that.
So it's been my home.
SPEAKER_02 (01:43):
So especially since it's been all your life in
Paraleland, I can just imaginethe growth that you've seen from
when you were younger to now.
SPEAKER_01 (01:50):
Absolutely like that.
Well, uh yeah, so uh in thebeginning, of course, being
young, not really knowing whatgrowth looked like, uh just saw
it, right?
And and but it was kind of cool,I guess, growing up because we
could see new I'll never forgetwhen we had uh just one Sonic
and then all of a sudden we hadtwo and one Walmart, then we had
two, now we had three and four,and you know, it was kind of
(02:10):
cool seeing that theopportunities uh for businesses
and things like that were werekind of cool.
I didn't have to go far to go,you know, Parallel's kind of
always been the nucleus for me.
It's always I've always tried totell people uh from a marketing
standpoint or even just inconversation that we have the
greatest of everything righthere because within a few
minutes you can have anything inthe world, you know, everything
from NASA and Clear Lake area toHouston and all of it has to
(02:33):
offer and uh Sugarland, allthose kind of things.
So we're kind of the nucleus ofthe hub of the wheel right here,
but it's a good location to comeback home to.
Right.
You know, you feel safe, it's agood community vibe.
SPEAKER_02 (02:44):
Definitely.
That's one thing I always tellpeople, no, I don't leave
Paraland.
And if I do leave Paralyn, it'sfor a sporting event that's
probably like an NRG or toyotacenter, and and that's pretty
much it.
Yeah, that opportunity existsthough, within a short amount of
minutes, right?
Right, exactly.
So tell us a little bit moreabout yourself.
I know you're a Parland native.
What got you into the field?
(03:05):
What are some of theorganizations that you volunteer
with?
Um, just a little bit aboutbook.
SPEAKER_01 (03:09):
Okay.
Well, uh uh went to school here,of course, graduated in 1980.
Uh, actually got my GED uh in1980.
My father had passed away rightprior to that, and I was going
through some struggles, etcetera, trying to get in keep
going in school, et cetera.
And so uh me and my mom werekind of on our own and do doing
our own thing.
Had a brother, younger brotherat that point as well.
(03:30):
So I I got out of school alittle early, graduated with my
GED, went to Alvin CommunityCollege, got my police uh
certification, and then um offuh for some reason uh uh my dad
had done law enforcement priorto this.
Uh and so uh I I guess I kind ofthought that's where I wanted to
go.
I didn't know anything else butpolice work at the time because
I remember uh going to thepolice station, just sitting
(03:52):
there with the dispatchers, andthey would keep me kind of
almost like a babysitter whilemy dad was working.
I mean, back in those days itwas nothing in Maryland.
And then um, and so anyway, butuh once I graduated to the
police academy, I put in myapplications everywhere, and
then I ended up going to work inthe petrochemical industry.
Wow.
And so uh became my mom workedfor a company in Houston and uh
(04:12):
went up there and learned to beelectrical draftsman and did uh
drafting work for about fouryears, five years.
And um, I did odds and endsvarious other things here in
Parland.
I was a manager at the old RadioShack that used to be here.
I worked at the old Kroger'sactually was my very first gig
uh out of out of the box there,so to speak.
And that was when it was acrossthe street on Broadway.
And uh then there was a uh ahardware store called Handy Dan.
(04:36):
I worked there for a littlewhile and actually was in the
same building when Kroger'smoved across the street.
And so it did a lot of those uhlittle small odd and end things.
And then um, and then one day Igot a friend uh that called me.
He was with the policedepartment and uh here in
Parrand and he said, Hey, uh,are you still got your license
and all that?
And I said, Yeah, and he said,Well, one of our mutual friends
was going down to be the chiefof police in Hitchcock, Texas,
(04:58):
and um he's needing some policeofficers because they've uh
terminated everyone that was inthe agency.
They had some corruption goingon, and so they were starting
all starting off fresh.
So I went down there and appliedand got the job and worked there
for uh almost well, almostexactly two years to the day.
Uh then the sheriff's officecalled me and said, Hey, uh,
we're hiring patrol deputies andum uh we know media application
(05:20):
back several years ago.
We're just kind of updatingtheir stuff to see if you're
still interested.
And I said, Well, I love I likewhere I'm at, but it's it's cut
it's cool in Hitchcock, Texas,but uh, you know, make me an
offer.
So they did, and and I came overto Brisoria County.
Uh so I worked for the sheriff'soffice for a number of years,
and then um during that time ortowards the end of that time, I
bought a business here inParaland.
And uh it was actually acombination of two businesses,
(05:42):
an old trophy shop calledPlaques and Plates that was
around for years.
It was the oldest trophy shop inthe whole area, in the south,
south Houston area.
We used to do all of the awardsfor the Houston Livestock Show
and Rodeo and all the all thosethings for um Dad's Club and the
Little League and all that wehad.
I remember when we work inthere, we had thousands of
trophies and stuff like that.
(06:03):
So did that for a little bit.
Um, and we uh merged those twocompanies together.
The other one was a signedcompany, Paraland Signs, and
then became A B Products.
And we've owned that for 25years here in Paraland and went
through all the you know thehassles of owning a business
here in town and uh and the goodpart, uh you know, selling
locally and and doing those kindof things.
And then I had some friends ofmine, some JP's uh justices of
(06:25):
the peace here in in town thathad worked me with me when I was
with the sheriff's office andsaid, Hey, we'd like for you to
consider running for constable.
And the first thing I said is,Why in the world would I want to
do that?
I got a I got a nice businesshere, everything I set my own
hours, I do my own thing.
And uh they said, Look, we thinkyou're the right guy for the
job.
It's going to expand, and weneed someone that can take it to
the next level that can manageit and manage the growth and do
(06:45):
those kind of things.
So I've jumped off into it, and28 years later, I'm still doing
it.
Still doing it.
And so uh it's growing a lot.
It's gone from a part-time uhone-person facility to uh 22
full-time uh employees and a lotof growth, a lot of growth.
SPEAKER_02 (06:59):
Your and your office is located uh kind of in your
killings, right?
SPEAKER_01 (07:02):
Yes, we have uh my main office is on Grand
Boulevard, uh right there,downtown, what I call downtown
parallel.
Most people don't know it asdowntown anymore.
And then we uh uh have asub-office in Alvin.
So we have two areas uh withinwithin precinct three of
Brisoria County.
SPEAKER_02 (07:17):
So being the what what are some of the things that
y'all are involved in with thatas far as being the constable?
SPEAKER_01 (07:23):
Okay, uh so a lot of people do ask questions about
constable, what do we do, etcetera?
So we're you know, in the stateof Texas, every peace officer is
exactly the same.
We get licensed by the sameagency, we take the same
testing, we take the sameacademies.
So peace officers in general areall the same.
However, we generally havedifferent geographical
responsibilities and ours umresponsibilities that are uh
unique to us.
(07:44):
Like in the constable's office,we're more civil oriented.
We take care of the courtrooms,we bailift the courtrooms and
keep security.
We serve civil process thatcomes out of any court in
America.
Uh, we serve that process toanybody that lives here.
And we we can still do all thecriminal stuff.
We can work traffic, we can doall those things, but uh it's
always been my belief that we westay in our lane.
(08:04):
We do our good thing, we doreally good at what we do.
And then the you know, thesheriff's office and the local
PDs they can handle and the DPS,they can do all the criminal
stuff and all that kind ofthings.
Not that we're not asked everyonce in a while to come help
them and and do that, but that'sour forte, and we I enjoy doing
it.
And now, and now and I would Ilook back, I wish I'd started 10
or 15 years even before.
I love it.
(08:24):
I love what I do, and uh and uhthe main thing is interaction
with people.
SPEAKER_02 (08:29):
What are some of the organizations that you're
currently involved in that you Isee you everywhere.
You know, I said the same thingto Jeff because it's true.
Yeah, um, I know you're realinvolved with the Lions Club,
correct?
SPEAKER_01 (08:40):
Yes, I've been in Lions Club since 1985.
Um in in 1980, uh right when Igraduated as well, uh, I wanted
to become a Paraland fireman.
And at that time, they wouldn'tallow anybody under the age of
18.
So I went and started, uhactually started my fire career
or fire background in uhBrookside Village and became a
volunteer fireman over there.
And that was about the time thatthe big explosion happened here
(09:02):
in Paraleland, and uh it scaredme to death.
I was a little, you know, youngfireman, not really knowing what
to do and what to where to goand what to be or anything.
But uh soon after that, I uhwent back.
As soon as I turned 18, I joinedParaland Fire Department.
I was with their volunteerdepartment for 28 years, uh,
retired as their first assistantchief uh uh out of the volunteer
department.
And I was the kind of the badguy because I'm the one that uh
(09:23):
recommended going from anall-volunteer department to uh
what they call the combinationdepartment and now a full-time
career department.
And so um a lot of thevolunteers didn't really think
that was cool, but at the timeapparently it was growing,
tremendously growing, and yougot to be able to manage that
and and and move with thegrowth.
And so um uh we were justanswering way too many calls
(09:45):
during the day on weekends andweeknights, no problem.
Had enough volunteers to takecare of everything, but that
Monday through Friday, 6 to 6was giving us a struggle.
And then, of course, throughthat, I became a member of the
chamber.
I was always out in the schoolsdoing fire prevention education.
Uh people would see me and say,hey, come be a part of this.
So I joined the neighborhoodcenter.
I joined uh the 100 club inParaland.
Um, a lot of those organizationsI became board members, some of
(10:08):
them I'm still board members on.
There's three right now that I'muh, well, two of them I'm
president of, I'm treasurer of acouple of them.
So I enjoy the interaction andthe camaraderie that has to do
with 501c3s and nonprofits.
In fact, uh I was gonna retireno matter what in three years,
and that was one of the thingsthat I was going to jump off
into is become a certified uhnonprofit executive and try to
(10:30):
figure out how I can help morenonprofits do the right thing.
Just as simple as followingtheir 990s and getting that on
time to making budgets andrunning meetings and conducting
meetings how to five, how toeven file for their 501c3 and
keep that.
I I'm pretty good at that.
I've started three or fournonprofits now, so I I wanted to
that's what I wanted to do.
SPEAKER_02 (10:50):
I think it's definitely hard, especially
getting into a nonprofit worldwhere you want to do something
special as a cause, a goodcause, but it then you just go
in not knowing anything.
Absolutely, and then it justbecomes a lot.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So that that's definitelysomething I've seen.
So you're happy, you've beendoing this, you've been doing
the constable precinct precinctthree, constable.
(11:10):
Why?
SPEAKER_01 (11:11):
Why change?
Yeah.
So uh in the 1990s, uh, I wasasked to run for city council,
and I was really considered ituh in the early 90s, and then 95
rolled around.
That's when I got approachedabout the constable's position.
And I've been in lawenforcement, I love doing that,
and uh, you know, I figured ifif someone's coming to me and
asking me to do something,that's kind of my calling.
(11:32):
It's an opportunity, right?
And so um uh I went off into theconstable's world and and did
that as opposed to you know, kidall that's gonna be around
forever, and I can always diveinto it at any point.
So that's the way I looked atit, and I went into the
constable's deal knowing thatthat I could make a difference.
And so um when uh Mayor Reed, uhlongtime good friend, uh and and
(11:52):
certainly a good communityadvocate, uh was he called me
and said, Hey, I'm thinkingabout stepping down.
Would you think about runningfor mayor?
And I said, Well, I you know, Ireally like what I'm doing now.
I don't know, we'll kind of seewhatever.
And just so happened, about thesame time, uh Mayor Cole, uh
Kevin, had had uh we hadconversed a little bit and he
was interested in running formayor.
(12:13):
And I said, You know what?
I like it where I'm at.
I'm just gonna stay where I'mat, you go for it, and you know,
you know, good luck witheverything, right?
And uh and I told him, I said,no, make sure you don't mess up
because I'm gonna come in andrun again if you don't.
But uh no, he he did it, he'sdone a great job, uh, uh a great
opportunity.
So I uh like I had indicatedearlier, I was gonna retire uh
at the end of this.
(12:33):
We serve a four-year term asconstable.
I've been in 28 years now,unopposed 90% of the time, 99,
95% of that time.
And I was gonna retire this lasttime.
I've had a, you know, I said,you know, it's time to turn over
the reins, let a new breath offresh air come in, see if
there's something that needs tobe changed and and and keep up
with today's society.
And so I was gonna retire anywayin four years, or actually three
(12:55):
years now.
Uh and so all of a sudden thesedoors opened.
Um and so when uh Maricolaannounced that he was gonna run,
I said, you know, I went homeand prayed about it, talked to
Michelle uh about it, and wejust kind of said, you know
what, if we're gonna do it,let's do it.
And so I said, you know, I'm I'mjumping in all feet.
And so it's an opportunity, I'mgonna do it.
And um it's something I've kindof always wanted to do.
(13:17):
I'm more I'm more so in linewith running for council, I
thought, at the time, uh, forfor uh all this time because uh,
you know, the council membersactually make a difference.
They get to vote on the thingsand discuss and cuss and
everything else about it.
Uh the mayor is just uh afigurehead, uh so to speak, but
he's you know really a commanderin chief, but he's uh he's the
face of the Parland, right?
(13:37):
Right.
And so you know what, that'sreally what I like doing too.
So I really like going out andand selling and marketing uh and
and being an ambassador forParaland, and that's what I'm
hoping to do.
SPEAKER_02 (13:46):
So would you coming in as the mayor, what are some
of the things that you're gonnabe running on?
SPEAKER_01 (13:50):
What what what are some of your uh Well, so I've
had a I've had a longtimestretch with uh with you know uh
you know being in the businessfor 25 years, being active in
the chamber for so many years,uh, and all these nonprofit
organizations, I really want tosee Paraland.
I've always even though we'vealways pushed for Paraland to be
um a place where people want tocome visit and and and do those
(14:12):
kind of things, I really thinkthat's a that's a big thing.
But I think also people feelcomfortable here as a community.
I think it's uh I despite whatall we ever try to do, I think
we're always gonna be that kindof a bedroom community.
People love coming here,bringing, raising their family
here.
We have great schools,phenomenal schools.
And so I think people move herefor a purpose.
I think they feel safe.
I think they feel like this iscommunity, it has a little bit
(14:33):
of everything.
And again, within 15, 20minutes, you can be anywhere and
do anything else you want to do,and then come back home.
And you know that your house isprotected, you know that um uh
your family's protected.
Uh do we have crime?
Absolutely.
I mean there's no community inthe world that doesn't have
crime.
And so um uh, but it's much lesshere than is it is in any of our
(14:54):
regional counterparts.
And so people uh I think peopleknow that.
Um and and the reality industrydoes a great job of marketing
that.
And so um I really want to pushfor more things for when people
do come visit our community andspend their money here and then
go away.
I want to use that money, right?
So arts, uh uh things thatpeople can come, walkable
(15:15):
districts, things that peoplecan come and visit for the day,
have a great time, want uh wantto be part of Paralands growth
in those kind of areas, and thenspend time here and spend money
here, and then go back to theirhomes, wherever that may be,
too.
So I'd really like to see somemore art arts.
I'd like to see, I've alwayswanted, I've been shooting for a
(15:35):
skate park for probably 40 yearsnow.
I've been trying to get a skatepark in town.
Uh I would love to see a skatepark.
I just think that's a greatopportunity for our youth.
I'm one of those believers thatif you don't do something to
collaborate that, that you know,they end up in places that they
probably should not be.
Right, 100%.
And so parks do that.
Parks are already centralizedcentric people, uh, skate parks
(15:55):
centric people, and I thinkthere's a good collaboration
that could happen there.
But um, doing things likemarkets, uh, you know, the um
part of the re downtownrevitalization project I set in
on many of those meetings.
I'd love to see that downtown uhredone, but I realize it's it's
all about money.
Right.
Uh a lot of it about money.
So some private partnerships aregonna have to really come into
(16:16):
play there.
SPEAKER_02 (16:18):
So with with you coming in, so one of the things
is I love Parland and just likethe hometown, small town feel it
has, but at the same time, it'shuge.
Yes.
So how do we keep that smalltown feel?
And and uh what I'm worriedabout is having more franchises
come in and losing our smallbusinesses.
SPEAKER_01 (16:36):
Yes, a small b that's what I was a small
business.
Started with two of them andcombined them.
Like I said, we did trophies forevery every uh team here for
years and years and years.
That that's a struggle.
Uh it's a balance.
Now we can't, you know, I'm allabout free enterprise.
Um, you know, if people areowning property, they ought to
be able to sell it and do whatthey need to do on it within
reason, right?
Uh we have codes and ordinancesand those things in place that
(16:59):
will control and manage thegrowth that's happening.
Uh so I I I I it I know it's astruggle for some, but I uh, you
know, even recently I reflectedback and I still think just uh
if you're really involved in thein the in the things in the
nonprofits and organizationsthat are in town, that small
town feel is still there.
(17:20):
We when something happens in ourcommunity, we rally up and we
all come together and we make itwork, we get it done, and then
we go back to our busy lives,right?
I don't think that happens in alot of other communities.
I mean, we saw it in CentralTexas when that happened.
We all went there, right?
That was a statewide efforttrying to get things back in
line.
I think that happens more so inParaland, too.
Protecting the small businessowner, you know, that's getting
(17:42):
tough everywhere uh for smallbusinesses, period.
Um there were some propospropositions that were one about
tax incentives for uh businessesand and small businesses
inventory-wise.
That you know, I'm all for that.
If we can figure out how toincentivize small businesses to
get to keep them going, I thinkthe downtown revitalization
project's gonna be made up of alot of small businesses.
(18:03):
The franchise businesses, Ithink they do a lot of work.
Uh, you know, people have saidfor years, well, I don't
understand why so-and-so doesn'tcome here, or why don't they
build a restaurant here, or whydon't they do that?
Those companies spend a lot ofmoney uh coming and looking.
And they say, you know, if um ifthe demographics are right, then
we'll build here.
If it's not, then we'll go toanother location.
And we still may be in linesomewhere maybe 30 restaurants
(18:26):
down the road, but uh eventuallywe'll have all those things.
But I think most demographicalpeople look at Parallel again.
I think I I am pretty certainthat a majority of people come
home, probably 60, 70 percent ofthem, come from Houston or Clear
Lake or other businessopportunities.
They come home, they go to theirhome, they want to go walk
around the parks, do someexercising, go to a few craft
(18:48):
shows, do some kind of thingslike that, and then go home, go
to bed and feel safe.
Uh so I think that's what Idon't know that the business,
the company, the uh communitydoesn't want a whole lot of
growth, right?
But you gotta have some.
Because we have all of we wantall this protection.
We want the fire and the policeand EMS and the infrastructure
and the roads and all thosethings done, that all takes
(19:10):
money, right?
And so uh if there's businessesnot here creating sales tax and
other generating uh inventorytax and those kind of things,
then guess who's gotta pay that?
Yeah, right.
And so it's a good balance.
It needs to be a good balanceand stay that way.
I agree.
SPEAKER_02 (19:24):
I uh I that's one thing.
Um, you know, when I was young,I've been here since the early
90s, 90s, I think, fifth grade,graduated, joined the military.
I said I was never coming backbecause I just wanted to grow,
you know, grow.
I wanted to get out in the worldand experience it.
After I did my military service,I said, all I want to do is go
back to Paralyn.
(19:44):
That's all I wanted.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You know, I've come here.
I've uh you know, I tell peoplea lot about you know, I've got
this place has seen me grow.
Absolutely.
You know, from a kid to a man,mistakes, you know, everything.
And I I I love it.
I love it here.
I have what's the biggestproblem that you see in the city
(20:05):
that we don't talk enough about?
SPEAKER_01 (20:07):
Communication.
I mean, I I one of the thingsthat I would really like to see
happen is is the ability uh toto and I'm not even sure I don't
know if I know the answers, butit seems like we miss a lot of
opportunity to get more in youknow those few citizens that
say, Hey, I wish more of thiswas happening in Parliament, and
and then I turn around and go,Well, that is happening.
(20:28):
You're just not connected to it.
How do we how do we fix that,right?
We have a superb uh mediasection, I guess, within the
city, if you want to call itthat division.
And maybe we need to work onthat somehow where we have a
community calendar, um somethingthat everybody can go up to.
I know the chamber worksdesperately to try to have a
community calendar, but a lot ofpeople feel like, oh, I gotta be
a member of the chamber before Ican get on there, you know, kind
(20:49):
of that kind of that feeling,right?
Even though I know it's notthere.
But I need I want to getsomething that that that we can
collaborate and connect on sothat people have one source that
they can go to and say that'sthe right source, and this is
where it's happening.
You know, used to in the day, wetalked about it almost every
weekend now, but um we go tothings and we say, you know, I
remember the day that we onlyhad one, maybe two events a
(21:10):
month, and everybody kind ofknew when that was.
It just happened every year, andthat's where everybody went.
Now we got three or four or fiveevery weekend, and uh they
overlap each other, right?
And it and that's part of thegrowth, that's part of the the
greatness, I guess if you will.
You have it now a choice ofseveral events you can go to.
Uh, and then you'll go two orthree weekends without nothing
going on.
Yeah.
And you have to wonder, didthose nonprofits get together
(21:31):
and try to work something out,or did that event try to get
together and see if there wassomething else?
The visitors and and uhconvention bureaus doing a great
job of marketing things here intown.
But I will tell you that theeast end, I I look at I look at
ends instead of sides.
I don't say east side or westside, I say ends, east end and
west end, because I look atourselves as elongated 14-mile
(21:51):
piece of property.
Yeah, yeah.
And uh but the people on theeast end don't know that there's
all kinds of events going on attown center at the west end.
The west end doesn't seem tocollaborate over to the east
end.
And I think as downtown paranoiarevitalizes and those things
happening, we I'd like to seethat cross somehow or another,
that's let's get across eachother, right?
Right.
And I know every every communityis broken up into cultural
(22:12):
divisions as well.
So uh seeing we we have uh lasttime I heard, I think we have 27
dialects in Dawson High School.
That's a lot of differentdialects of people that are
living here.
We're we're uh we're a uh asmudge pod of people, right?
And so uh we wanna I wanna howdo we capture those people?
How do they stay here andengage?
SPEAKER_02 (22:32):
That's a lot.
I didn't know it was that many,to be honest with you.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
What's okay, so we what what'sone of the things that we're
currently doing as a city thatyou just want to continue to
build on?
SPEAKER_01 (22:43):
Well, I think that uh, you know, uh that's a that's
a pretty good question.
Um I think our parks and recorddepartment does a great job.
You know, unfortunately, a lotof communities suffer because of
the of the decisions thatprevious councils made or
previous managers made,supervisors, and so I think
Paraland got caught up in anissue where there was a lot of
(23:04):
growth happening, but a lot alot of lot of forward thinking
wasn't done where we acquiredsome parkland, maybe some larger
pieces that would make it into agood a better park, let's say
for example.
Uh so we struggle with that now,and and you know, if we want to
go in and buy that or um youknow attain that land somehow,
the price has just goneastronomically crazy, right?
(23:25):
And so the taxpayers of uh, youknow, if they want more of that,
then they're gonna have to payto have that done.
So unfortunately, uh the schooldistrict, however, did a much
greater job of going out andacquiring a lot of land early on
and saying, you know, we mayhave to have uh based on our
growth, we may have to havethese partials for schools,
right?
Those the city councils back inthose days didn't do as much of
(23:46):
that.
unknown (23:46):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (23:47):
And some would say, oh well, well, you know, that
you know, that may be a waste,right?
We we may not ever need thatland.
Well, if you had that land nowand you had to turn it, look how
much money, you know, weprobably could pay off a lot of
debt, you know uh if we had doneit early on, just like in it,
just in the private.
But I think we do a good jobthere.
I know that we've done a greatjob with our water sources and
our infrastructure on the water.
(24:07):
I know we're we're again we'rean older city, especially on the
east end.
Infrastructure's gonna have tobe redone over time.
That costs money as well.
We can't do it at yesterday'sdollar, you know.
And so um that's gonna be astruggle.
But I think our our supervisorsand people that are in our
public works department aredoing a great job of keeping up.
So I'd like to see that, youknow, continue.
(24:28):
Our fire department and policedepartment are doing a they are
so much just being from the lawenforcement side and from the
fire side all these years, weare so far advanced than other
communities are.
And I know the citizens don'tfeel that maybe, or some don't
don't feel that or sense that,but while it is so in working
with so many other agencies, I'mjust so proud of our Paradelline
(24:50):
Police Department and firedepartment.
They're so much more advanced,so much more aggressive in their
training, their thinking, theirabilities.
And that keeps our crime and ourand our responses low.
We're not gonna, we can't doaway with traffic, we can't do
away with growth.
All we can do is manage it,right?
And so I think they do a greatjob of what they do.
(25:10):
Are they perfect?
Absolutely not.
Nobody's gonna be perfect.
I mean, I want to move to theperfect bubble city somewhere,
wherever that's at, that's wherewe all want to go, right?
But uh we're gonna make somemistakes, and uh, but you know,
I think if we come out on thegood side of everything, I think
we're in good shape.
When uh let's say like in the80s or 90s, did you ever picture
Paragon's growth to be thistype?
(25:31):
Absolutely not.
Again, I go back to uh we we hada uh Cullen Cullen Boulevard and
518 uh that actually made acurve right there, uh, and that
was called Dead Man's Curve.
And um, and people would comeout of out of Houston and flying
down Cullen Boulevard.
And uh back then I was with thefire department, and
unfortunately they didn't makethe curve.
(25:51):
And so uh that got its taglinethere.
But uh, you know, when I wasgrowing up as I was in high
school, actually uh even priorto high school, uh the uh some
pr pretty predominant familiesin the area knew uh owned a lot
of land, and we did a lot ofplowing.
I I worked on tractors forprobably four or five, maybe six
years during my what we used tocall intermediate and high
(26:13):
school areas, and I would go outand plow fields after school,
and we knew soy and rice andthose kind of things, belled
hay.
I used to be able to throw abell of hay.
I bet I couldn't even pick oneup now, but uh but it was um you
know, we there was cattleeverywhere, everything was just
like home.
You know, it was a ranch tall,everybody knew everybody.
(26:33):
I mean, that was back in thedays when you know mom and dad
said, okay, be home before thestreetlights come on, you know,
and uh and uh but the otherthing you'd get in trouble in
school and you'd think mom anddad didn't know about it.
And when you got home, theyknew.
So everybody, you know, talked,but so that growth has happened.
And um again, I never thoughtwe'd see, you know, four
different types of Walmarts andthree sonics and all these other
(26:56):
things that have come along.
But I love it.
I I mean I I I like it becauseit gives me variety, it gives me
the opportunity to not leavehome, still have have variety
and still be home, still.
SPEAKER_02 (27:07):
Yeah, I think uh, you know, I wish more people
understood that.
Uh I have like family membersand things like that.
How come you don't ever leave?
I said, why?
Everything's right here.
Absolutely.
Why would I go anywhere?
What kind of food are youcraving?
It's in the studio.
Absolutely.
You know, what do you want todo?
It's here.
SPEAKER_01 (27:21):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_02 (27:23):
What's what's uh okay, so with with Paraland
growing bigger and gettingbigger, and what are what can we
do better in Paraland for theyoung kids that and the teens?
SPEAKER_01 (27:33):
Yeah, so that's always been a missing uh niche,
right?
And um I was set on the parksboard for six years, I'm
actually seven, but you know, westruggled with that.
The leagues have always beenvery active and very good, like
the the little league, thebaseball, the football, all
those have been very active.
But we had a new growth ofpeople, kiddos come in that were
wanting skateboarding and otherthings that we weren't
(27:54):
accustomed to, right?
Now, you know, trying to fulfillthose things, fill those little
niches in in our parks or in oursystem, that's a struggle
because that because what yousaw, what I saw from the inside
looking out, was parents thatwere raising those those
children and wanting thosethings.
And then we had parents thathave lived here for many years
saying, oh, we don't need that,we got baseball, we got
(28:16):
football.
So you had this struggle as, youknow, I'm not giving up that
territory because you're gonnayou're gonna you're gonna put
concrete and make it into askate park, but we can use it as
a baseball field.
So that's always been kind ofthe deal.
But what I found as a policeofficer is that again, like I
said earlier, if you don'tengage these kiddos and keep
them, I'd much rather have agroup of kiddos and young adults
in one area, have a policeofficer interacting with them,
(28:39):
uh, doing things with them,playing basketball, whatever
that looks like, than the notthan the not.
You know, they could be out.
And I'm not saying I'm certainlynot saying every child is is a
bad child, but if if some peoplego adrift, they have
opportunities, you know, and soI don't want to see that.
I think it's safer um to have acollective unit, you know, in
places, in pockets, those kindof things too, as well.
(29:01):
So I uh we have always struggledwith that.
So I've always thought we couldhave one of those uh like a main
event, uh, you know, the biggerline.
And I know some some privateowners have tried to get that
going.
I think it's interesting that Isee posts on Facebook from time
to time where people say, well,the city needs to do a better
job of bringing this company inor this this type of atmosphere
(29:21):
in, or you know, a uh you know,a main event in.
Well, we don't, the city doesn'thave control over that.
All we can do is say, hey,here's you know, uh private
property owner, you know, canyou go and see if you can find
somebody that's like that to buyyour property?
Or uh, you know, so uh I think alot of people think the city
controls what does or doesn'tcome in.
The only thing we do is is onceyou decide that you're going to
(29:44):
build, you have to build tothese conditions.
Right.
And you have to meet theseobjectives.
And you have to be in the zonecorrectly, or else you guys for
a zoning change.
So so that I think the laypeople and the citizens that
live here don't understand thatthere's a there's some puzzle
pieces there, but the citydoesn't have really.
Now we have an economicdevelopment corporation that
goes out and really looks atindustry and good growth and try
(30:07):
and and I know for a fact theyhave over the years looked for
clean growth.
Some of the medical field up inthe in the Beltway area, that's
all good, clean, good inventory,good taxation, good partners to
have in our community.
We don't want to haveindustrial, a lot of industrial
stuff that puts off hazardousmaterials or those kind of
(30:29):
things.
We don't want to see that.
Now we have we have good, cleanindustrial companies here.
And I live right behind rightnext to one, in fact, right now
right now.
And those are good partners tohave as well.
Um, but they have regulationsthey got to follow, both both
federal, state, and local thatthey got to follow to make their
site and uh environmentallyfriendly and clean.
So I think we've done a it'shard to go out and you know, the
(30:52):
EDC and other people go out tothese uh conventions and they
try to say, come to Parentland,come to Parentland, but we can't
force them.
We can't force them.
And so the same thing happens onthe kids' side, right?
We want, I I really still trulythink we need some type of
convention center.
It doesn't have to be huge, butI think we need a place that can
hold, you know, tens ofthousands of people, or at least
(31:12):
10,000 people, that becausethere's so many of our
nonprofits and our things thatare having to go outside of our
community to host an event.
That's money that we're missingout on.
Somehow or another we need tocapture that.
Uh, and every time we do a studyand we look at those things, it
ends up being a sports-relatedthing.
Well, uh, we haven't got enoughsports stuff, I think.
(31:33):
We need something for the arts,something for the craft show,
something for the chamber tohave their banquet at,
something, you know, all we'remissing.
Everybody's going to, you know,over to the Lone Star Museum or
they're going down to SouthShore Harbor.
And the only reason why isbecause we don't have a facility
large enough to host that.
SPEAKER_02 (31:47):
So that's uh amazing.
Um I'm I'm I love hearing allthis input that you know, some
of the things I I didn't know.
One one thing I have, so you saythe Paralleline, like the so any
business can come toParalleline?
Absolutely.
The council and nobody hasanything to say what type of
businesses come in and come out?
SPEAKER_01 (32:08):
No, uh the the previous councils and currently
councils, uh they you know, along time ago we have these
comprehensive plans and we do uhzoning.
We have zoning in Paraland.
So we uh they've tried to do thebest they could to say, okay, on
this major street, we want thistype of environment along both
sides of that.
Then we have these residentialstreets, we don't want that.
(32:29):
We want residential areas.
So each our parent uh uh city iszoned out as best they could do.
You know, now when new roadscome in, like McCard Road when
it came in, that changed thezoning along McCard Road.
It was all residential.
Now it got changed becausethat's a major or uh corridor
now.
And so the property owners thatthat probably had or were
thinking that, oh, I'll justsell all my property to to a
(32:50):
house, somebody wants to build ahouse one day, and well now they
can sell it to build a stop andgo or whatever.
And so we can't we can't umrestrict the only thing we can
do is say if you're going tobuild a U-totem or a stop and go
or or a strip center or whateverin this area, as long as it
meets the conditions, they don'tthey don't even have to come to
city council.
(33:11):
They can pull their permit andstart building.
SPEAKER_03 (33:13):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (33:13):
Now, if there's some change that they need to do, if
they're trying to put somethingthat's not compliant with that
zone, then they got to goforward planning and zoning and
possibly even city council tosay, hey, I want to change this
one thing to make this work.
And at that point, we can say,No, you're not gonna change it.
Uh, it's gotta stay this way, orbecause we we speak for the
people that are around you.
Yeah, we're there to protectthem first.
(33:35):
We didn't ask you to come, youdecided to come, and so because
of that, you got to meet thiscriteria.
And so um uh I've seen that overthe years, and that's a hard
decision.
That's a really hard decision.
Some would say, you know, Iremember there was an issue with
uh independence park.
There's a partial across fromIndependence Park that wanted to
put in a um a gas station andand a little small little strip
(33:55):
center.
And everybody came out and votedagainst it.
They filled the councilchambers.
That's your opportunity to gosay no.
I don't want that in my area.
Is there good in it and bad init?
Yeah, bad is possibly uh maybeit could bring a little bit more
traffic flow.
The good is is I don't know howmany times I've gone across the
street to my local conveniencestores when I run out of a loaf
of bread or I need a milk onSunday morning or something that
(34:16):
it's kind of convenient to haveit there, right?
And so uh there's good and badin it.
And it also, depending on theway it's structured and way it's
built, it could add propertyvalue, it can increase your
property values.
Of course, when you increaseyour property value, that
increase the tax bill at the endof the day.
So all those things happen.
But if you ever decide to sell,that's gonna it may increase
your property value right there.
SPEAKER_02 (34:37):
Yeah, I had the I'm you know, there was a there was
a thing about mccard road, andthere was a an apartment
apartment complex that was, youknow, had to go to city council.
And I uh, you know, I sat in ona few of those just because I
was curious.
Yeah.
And uh yeah, I love the way thatwas handled.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (34:52):
I I I I agree 100% what and and you know it's funny
because uh if they they don'tagain, they were they weren't
they were required to go andgive uh uh public opinion or uh
public input because of thesomething they wanted to change.
Now, if they just moved, youknow, just slightly left of that
scale, they wouldn't have evenhad to have done that.
They would have gone in and justbuilt and everybody would have
(35:12):
been non- They probably wouldn'thave been happy, but there's
nothing you can do to stop it.
Right.
Okay.
And so uh that there's achallenge in that.
Um uh and that's happened onseveral pieces across town.
SPEAKER_02 (35:21):
What's let's say uh what's something that you
believe in, that you believe infor Paralyn, even if it's not
gonna be a popular decision, achoice, maybe.
SPEAKER_01 (35:32):
Is there anything like that?
Um Well, I think ourtransportation is one of our uh
struggles right now.
I tend to believe, and I don'thave any uh uh just based on my
involvement in the community andthe nonprofits and things that I
interact with, I tend to believeour community is getting older
in age and so uh demographicallyuh getting older.
(35:52):
And I think at some point we'regonna have to think about how do
we get those people around?
You know, do we offer a service?
Do we do we do something localuh with a service?
Do we co-op with some othercompany to do the service, a
metro or somebody else?
But I think part of gettingpeople off the streets or
getting traffic reduction is isoffering one vehicle as opposed
to 30 vehicles that are takingup space, right?
(36:15):
I don't know if I have theanswer to that.
Um, and I don't know if it'sgood or bad.
I haven't seen, I've seen alittle bit of trials that
they've attempted to do.
It didn't work out as well asthey thought.
But I also think that the otherthing we're gonna struggle with
is as we we know there's aninfrastructure plan in place for
our road, our transportationroads.
And so when those, when 518, forexample, starts to grow, and
(36:37):
it's gonna grow, it's a it's atext dot road and it and it
needs to grow.
It needs to grow wider.
I wish they'd done it a longtime ago as opposed to now, but
that's the way it is.
When that starts, it's amazingto me that as we start to expand
to get make things better,people complain because of
what's going on to make thingsbetter.
And so you're not gonna makeeverybody happy anyway.
I think we all have a uniquenessabout us to be able to absorb
(36:59):
that.
Some know that uh with growthcomes some change, uh, it comes
some struggles, but man, at theend of the day, when it's all
done, I think it's a lot better.
You know, we we went McCardRoad's a good example.
I'd hardly ever go on 518anymore.
I I hit McCard Road and it'sit's great.
You know, did I ever think I'duse it?
I didn't think so at all.
But yeah, I do now.
(37:19):
And Magnolia, I mean, I thinkthe I think the forward thinking
of councils before that thoughtabout those plans and put them
in place and put them on print.
Everybody got to see them,everybody got an opportunity to
put input into those, and theythen approved them, and now
we're just not getting to thepoint of putting them in.
I think that's where we lose thecommunication.
People think that all of asudden somebody came up on
council drinking this thing upand said we're gonna put this
(37:40):
road there.
A lot of that was designed yearsago.
Years ago.
We don't communicate that verywell.
SPEAKER_02 (37:47):
What um me is that as the town grows, one of the
things that I've seen is a lotmore, I guess, homeless people.
How how is how is something likethat handled or how is that I
don't I don't know if you havethe answer or Yeah, uh yeah,
unfortunately I don't have theanswer.
SPEAKER_01 (38:02):
I what I you're you're absolutely right.
I do see more and more.
I think we have uh I think lasttime I heard we have like 12
confirmed uh people we interactwith on a on a daily basis or
weekly basis anyway.
There's probably many more.
So I think the key is to getahead of it.
Um I know uh one of our cities,the south of us, ha struggled
(38:24):
with that.
They didn't get ahead of it andthen they all of a sudden
started causing us a lot ofproblems.
A lot of what I see is notallowed to begin with.
Um and I'm not not talking aboutjust homeless, but peddlers, uh
things like that.
When you start allowing thingslike that to happen, it tends to
allow other things to grow.
And so it's kind of like, oh,well, they got a rig with it, so
I'm gonna come do it too.
SPEAKER_03 (38:45):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (38:45):
And I noticed just today, in fact, I think it was
in today's paper where Houstonturned or Harris County turned
down the peddlers uh uh thing uhcountywide, which I thought I,
you know, I didn't get to hearthe conversation, so I don't
know what all happened there.
But you know, it's illegal to topedal anything from a state
right away anyway.
You're not even supposed to beon a state right-of-way
physically, being standing ormoving or doing anything on a
state right-of-way.
(39:06):
It to me that's more of anenforcement thing.
It's already a state law.
You can't be there, just get thelocal law enforcement to go by
and say, hey, you can't be here,move on.
Uh in the city of Parland, wehave a permitting process.
You have to have a permit inorder to solicit.
Uh, that's for the solicitationside.
On the homeless side, I don't uhagain, I one of the things I
think we could do, uh I knowthere's a couple of camps around
(39:27):
town, but they tend to be onproperty that is overgrown.
And have we, I don't know theanswer to this, but have we
reached out to that propertyowner and say, hey, can you can
you undercut this?
Can you brush this out, clean itup, clean it?
First of all, it makes theproperty look more valuable,
better, but it also doesn'tprovide any opportunity, right?
Uh I think if we and then theother side of the whole coin is
(39:47):
is those that do need help, howdo you help them?
Where do you where do you getthat help?
I know uh we have a friendly uhvisitor at the neighborhood
center that comes in all thetime, and I know our goal at the
neighborhood center is to try toget people back on their feet,
not to not to continue to uhfeed that machine, right?
And we try to help them say,hey, you know, what about
getting a job?
You know, whatever that lookslike uh in their life.
(40:09):
Uh a lot of its mental health uhand and and the challenges that
come along with that.
And I think unfortunatelyAmerica as a whole is is
beginning to see that.
Yeah.
Uh and so that's that's achallenge as well.
SPEAKER_02 (40:22):
What does uh success look like for you in four years?
SPEAKER_01 (40:26):
You know, uh still still doing what I'm doing.
Yeah, you know, I love life, Ilove people, I love engaging
people, I like being around uhmy community.
I think I'm one of the uniqueones that has had the
opportunity and and God hasblessed me to be able to be
involved in many, manyorganizations over time.
(40:48):
Many have come and gone, uh, etcetera, but it's allowed me to
open my eyes to a differentpoint of view from every aspect
of our community.
I hope I'm still able to dothat.
I hope I'm healthy, being ableto engage.
I want to be, I want to be acollaborator.
I want to be those those.
I enjoy uh when someone calls meand says, hey, I'm thinking
about starting an organization.
(41:09):
How do I go about doing that?
That makes me feel like I'vedone my job.
I tell my kids all the timethat, you know, and I have this
little blurb that they did whenI did a Men Who Cook way back in
the days, and they they saidthey made a statement and said,
Dad, you're too involved, youknow.
And I said, But but yes, I'minvolved, but you are with me
too, right?
And so I'm building this, uh,I'm building now what I want to
(41:31):
leave you into the future.
Now, one stayed, one's movedoff, but you know, I want I want
our community to be somethingthat people will, you know, we
don't it I think there's thismisnomer that people just move
here and then uh and then theypass away here and then the city
just becomes dormant.
Well, that's not what happens,right?
The reality is people continueto move here.
What is that purpose?
What is that reason?
Well, I'm hoping to leave alegacy that that people will
(41:54):
continue to want to move here,enjoy life here, and grow and
bring their kids here and dothose kind of things, bring
family here.
And I hope I'm still able to doall that at the end of the day.
That's amazing.
SPEAKER_02 (42:05):
What do you want people to remember or to get
away to get from this podcast?
What do you want people toremember or to get from this
podcast?
SPEAKER_01 (42:13):
Well, uh, I need people to remember I'm just I'm
just a plain old buck.
I'm just I'm not nothing fancy.
I have a how I have a mortgage,I have uh, I pay taxes, I um I
uh I get involved in mycommunity.
I'm not, you know, I think eachindividual on council or
commissioner's court or whateverwe're or even an organizational
(42:34):
board, we all bring a, you know,God provided us a uniqueness,
each of us.
We have a unique talent.
And I think each of us have toharness that talent and bring it
into the room and say, how canwe be best served, right?
Some are really, really good atfinances and things like that.
Some are really good atcollaboration, uh, some are good
at at you know budgets and doingall those kind of things.
(42:55):
I just want, I just I I um Iwant everything to be, I want
people to know that first ofall, I'm open, that I they can
come to me and ask me.
I may not know the answers.
I'm pretty resourceful, uh, havea lot of resources, but I also
uh I I will admit I don't knowall the answers.
Right.
Uh and and you know, even thoughI can study the budget, I can
(43:17):
study, I I watch City Councilonline probably, I would say 80%
of the year I'm watching CityCouncil online.
Sometimes I'm actuallyphysically there.
And I've been doing that for 25,30 years.
Some of the stuff I hear themvote on, I'll go, eh, I probably
wouldn't win, you know, but I'mnot I'm not privy to everything,
I'm not privy to the background.
And so and I'm and I'm veryquick to say I don't want to
judge a council member of theirvote because maybe they're privy
(43:40):
to something I'm not, right?
And so um I want to make surethat that that I I'm not gonna
be perfect, and um and then andand and I want to be able to uh
have grace to be able to gothrough and and make some
challenges.
Uh I don't get a vote, but Iprobably do get a say.
(44:01):
And you know, if if a if a if agroup of individuals or citizens
want something one way, they atleast want to be able to portray
that in a right way.
SPEAKER_02 (44:09):
That's it.
Buck Buck, I really appreciateyou coming in.
And and um, you know, on thispodcast, I I spotlight, you
know, veterans and firstresponders, and I started to to
branch off to leaders in thecommunity.
You fall under the firstresponder, but you also fall
under the leaders.
And you've been a leader in thiscommunity for a long time.
Uh I and I appreciate it.
(44:30):
Uh, continue doing what you'redoing, and I look forward to
seeing what what happens nextfor it.
SPEAKER_01 (44:34):
Okay.
Well, I appreciate theopportunity, and uh, you know,
uh, God willing, everything willwork out the way the way I hope
uh that it does.
And and if it doesn't, then uhyou know I'm okay with that as
well.
I'm still not I'm not goinganywhere, still gonna be
engaged, still gonna be doingthings.
Uh it's not gonna slow me down.
Yes, sir, and I appreciate it.
Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_02 (44:52):
And you guys, thank you for tuning in.
As always, if you're in acrisis, be sure to dial 988.
Uh check on your friends andfamily this holiday season.
Mental health is real.
That's what I wanted to say.
So uh again, Buck, thank you forbeing here.
And as always, guys, CharlieMike.
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